


Streets Like Capillaries

by babbyspanch



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canada, Future Fic, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, an unspecified amount of time tbh it's like six or seven years post Asahi's grad, bc write what you know I guess, past abusive relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 02:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5187911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babbyspanch/pseuds/babbyspanch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a cold night in mid-January when Asahi finds himself nose-to-nose once more with Nishinoya. Not even moving to Canada could stop Noya in a mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Streets Like Capillaries

Asahi stood up from the small, round table so suddenly that the chair he had been sitting on shot out behind him, rocketing two meters across the bar floor. It came to a halt with a clatter only after becoming violently acquainted with a fellow patron's gut.

Asahi rushed to the door, yelling hurried-- but very sincere-- apologies behind him to both the wheezing man who now had something fruity and pink spilled down his white shirt and to a still frozen Nishinoya Yuu.

The door jingled loudly behind him as Asahi slammed it shut and tugged the collar of his gray woolen jacket up to his chin-- he had abandoned his scarf in his retreat.

It had been his favorite, still as white and soft as the day he bought it. His slightly intoxicated brain found the bitter humor in the colour.

Surrendering was what he was good at, after all. It had been irrefutably proven to everyone five years ago when he had moved away from his friends, family and job because his then boyfriend had demanded it of him.

And Asahi had just told Noya the whole story about what had happened with his boyfriend. All the tricks, the lies, the manipulation. Every detail. As soon as the words stopped pouring from his lips, he knew he couldn't handle seeing or hearing Noya’s response.

So once more, Asahi abandoned ship.

Taking in a long breath of January air helped to clear his head a little. He stopped loitering outside the bar and forced himself to walk down the street. If Noya hadn't come for him yet, the chances were slim he'd come after him at all. Noya had always been brash and impulsive, especially after two beers in him. He did whatever he thought was best and did it without any reservations.

Nishinoya would have never let himself be dragged away from a place or people that he loved, no matter the lies he was told.

Scrubbing at his face, Asahi set off at a quick pace, embarrassment his fuel as the chill started to settle into his bones.

The streetlights shone down on him as he made his way to the subway, a dull orange splashed over the duller concrete. Snow hadn't fallen yet, which was unusual for Toronto. He'd grown used to the harsh seasons of Canada in the years he'd been there. When it was winter it was frigid, and when summer finally reared its head it was like living in a hot box. Spring and Fall seemed to flash by in a blink.

Asahi missed Japan. Everything about it. The colours, the smells, the sounds of people speaking the language he grew up with, how the air smelled and how it weighed on his limbs and eye lashes and tongue.

All of it.

He was so tempted to move back, but…

But. There was always the but.

He had a job here. One that paid enough to rent a reasonably sized apartment that he could call home. He had a cat, and big leafy plants. He had slowly but surely built up a small collection of friends. He had found a great therapist who knew japanese and every day was getting a little easier to handle.

People would care if he left.

The city was wide and thrumming and alive in ways that Asahi would miss if he left this place too. He liked being a cog in the machine of something so much bigger than him. It made him feel useful, valued. Like his presence had some weight. He felt like he had a place here, in this huge unknowable city, where every corner held a story, layered and complex and never to be narrated.

He had felt that once in Japan, too.

He stopped walking and rubbed his sore eyes.

He heard feet slapping the sidewalk behind him a second later and froze. The footsteps sped and seemed to grow faster, more purposeful.

He tried not to hope. He-- of course-- did anyway.

He always did the foolish thing when it came to Nishinoya. The conversation in the bar was an example that jumped to the front of mind.

He had been shocked to come face-to-face with his old friend when he had heard a knock at his front door at eight o’clock at night. He hadn't spoken to Noya in three and a half years but all his old feelings welled up at the sight of the wide, reckless smile, the spiked (although no longer dyed) hair and the exuberant, shouted greeting. Asahi had swept him into a hug the instant it had all registered.

Noya told him he was in town for a while and happened across his address from a mutual acquaintance. Asahi figured right off the bat that was a lie and the truth had come out after they had their first drinks at the bar they chose. Apparently Asahi's mom was worried for him, despite his weekly calls home and cautious removals of any and all distress that had built up since the last call. She had begged Nishinoya to go check on him and Noya, being Noya, agreed instantly.

The feet stopped behind him and Ashai's breath caught, afraid to turn around even now.

“What you said in there… That's really what happened?”

Asahi nodded, feeling every inch of his body tense and buzz at the words. He was still frozen in place. He still couldn't quite believe he told the truth. The whole truth-- none of the half baked lies he had become so used to. Asahi sat down and told the truth behind every ‘dead’ cell phone, every bout muffled tears and too long showers. It all came out for the first time since he had told his therapist and it had been, in a word, terrifying. But at the same time there had been something so freeing to letting the words tumble from his lips without hindrance.

“Could you, uh… Look at me? While we talk about this, I mean? It's sort of,” Noya paused and huffed out an awkward, pained laugh, “It's kind of something I'd like to see your face for.”

Asahi pushed out the air in his lungs and turned to locked eyes with Noya. He could give him that at least.

“Your boyfriend really did all that to you? Forced you to move with him and manipulate you and-”

Asahi cut him off quickly, not wanting to revisit those confessions. “Yeah,” he nodded, then shrugged, air billowing out from his lungs in a winding cloud, dense and white in the night's darkness. “I was an easy target, I guess.”

Noya frowned, “Or-- just a possibility, here-- he was a complete tool?”

Asahi snorted. “That… That could be true too.”

“What happened doesn't change anything.” Noya said, suddenly every inch the fierce guardian deity that Asahi had fallen in love with. From the way his toes dug into the ground to the determined tilt of his chin, Noya looked just as he did when the ball was on their side of the court. “Nothing changed about how I see you and nothing will change about how I'll treat you-- not if you don't want it to.”

Asahi could feel his smile turn watery. “Thanks, Noya.” He muttered, softly.

“You know it, Asahi.” Nishinoya said, matching his tone. Suddenly, eyes glinting, he sprung up on his tip toes and wrapped something around Asahi's neck.

He looked down to find his white scarf nestled where it belonged, already warming him against the chill of the city. “You forgot this back at the bar, by the way. Sorry I took so long to catch up, I paid for another drink for the guy you almost murdered back there.”

Asahi flushed, “Was he okay? Was he angry?”

“Much less angry once I threw a fistful of cash at him.” Noya grinned lopsidedly and grabbed Asahi’s hand, “Come on, ace. Let's get some rest and then tomorrow morning we can talk about long term plans of yours.”

“I don't have any.” Asahi admitted freely for the first time in his life.

“Hey,” Noya turned and met his eyes, fingers tightening fleetingly as a sunny smile lept to his lips, “Me either.”

**Author's Note:**

> Im sorry they don't even kiss lmao
> 
> Based on the inbox prompt 'this changes nothing'
> 
> Hit me up at grimmonsed.tumblr.com for dank memes and crying


End file.
